Blog

Mental Health

Aromatherapy for Calm and Focus

Our sense of smell is truly amazing. It is said that the human nose can identify more than 1 trillion scents! And these aromas can have powerful effects on our mood, our thoughts, and even our behavior.

Have you ever smelled a certain food cooking and been transported to a memory in childhood? Or gotten a whiff of someone’s cologne/perfume that reminded you of a past significant relationship?

Our sense of smell is coordinated with receptors in the nose that link up through the first crania…

Read more…

Tending Your Mental Garden

Tending Your Mental Garden

In the early morning, I sat pulling weeds one by one. Gripping them by their roots and placing them in a bucket to discard, they seemed endless. As I labored on, this ordinary task got me thinking, because these weeds were actually growing in artificial turf! Despite my best efforts to discourage their growth, there they were – sprouting precisely and somewhat unexpectedly where I did not want them.

As I carefully and meditatively grasped each one by the root, I …

Read more…

Media Fast

Take a Media Fast

[Excerpt from “Resilient Health: How to Thrive in Our Toxic World” by Valencia Porter, MD, MPH]

“…while it may seem informing and even empowering, the media in all forms is designed to influence your behaviors, thoughts, and feelings—sometimes to the point of manipulation.”

For most of my life, the television was a constant fixture and was on any time that I was home. But when my daughter was an infant, I suddenly became more aware of the constant stream of violence …

Read more…